Teenage Kids
by Slainte2.0
Summary: Jack thinks about the kids in his life.


Title: Teenage Kids Author: Slainte Category: Vignette Season: S6, before "Full Circle" Pairing: None Rating: G  
  
Summary: Just a short moment in time where Jack reflects on the kids in his life.  
  
TEENAGE KIDS  
  
Noticing the gas gauge was nearly on empty, Jack pulled into the gas station. As he started to fill the tank of the truck, a car with teenage boys pulled up, car stereo blasting "Satellite" by the Dave Matthews band.  
  
Jack looked over at them, listening to their voices. There were four teens in the car. Looking at them Jack put their ages between sixteen and eighteen, about the age Charlie would be if he had lived.  
  
The young driver jumped out and started to pump gas. "Hey, Brian, I thought you were going to get the SUV tonight? What happened?"  
  
"My dad's still mad about the C in calculus. 'If you can't concentrate on the math, you'll never get into a good college.blah, blah, blah.' I'm just lucky we'd already bought the tickets to the concert, and that he thinks you're all idiots behind the wheel. Otherwise, I wouldn't be driving *or* going to the concert."  
  
"*We're* idiots? Your dad must not have seen some of your driving techniques."  
  
"I don't see *you* guys driving tonight. At least I got to use the old Honda." With that Brian finished pumping gas and went in to pay. The other three started talking about the Dave Matthews concert that started in less than an hour.  
  
"This is going to be awesome," said kid #1.  
  
"Dave Matthews rocks. I can't believe we're really going. What time are we meeting Jill and the girls?" kid #2 said.  
  
"Hey, Brian, hurry up. We're supposed to be at the north doors at 7:00. Let's go," shouted kid #3.  
  
Brian ran back to the car, jumped in and quickly pulled out of the gas station into traffic.  
  
His gas tank full, Jack looked at the total on the pump, grimaced and thought, "I should've bought the Ranger instead of this gas hog." Getting the credit card receipt from the pump, Jack got back into the truck and headed for home.  
  
Driving, he thought about the boys in the car and their concert and tried to imagine Charlie at that age. Jack remembered all the arguments and problems with his own dad, and what a difficult, tension filled time that had been. If Charlie hadn't died, if he were a teen now, would they have managed a better father-son relationship than Jack and his father had had?  
  
"I'll never know," Jack thought.  
  
That open wound inside never went away. Charlie was always there, as was the memory of how he died. Time and circumstance, however, had brought Jack some perspective, and now he lived with the grief and the might-have-beens with more grace. Somewhere along the way he had finally given himself permission to feel some measure of joy again. Meeting Skaara on Abydos had started the process.  
  
Funny thing was, try as he might, he couldn't picture Charlie as a teen. The Charlie in his mind stayed the sweet, loving little kid he had been. Instead, he saw Skaara and Cassie.  
  
Skaara's and Cassie's lives had been radically different from the kids in the car, or from what Charlie's teen years would have been.  
  
When he was forced to become host to Klorel, Skaara was the age of Brian and his friends. He had somehow survived that experience with his identity intact. After the Tollan's Triad when Klorel was removed, Jack considered it pretty darn amazing how successful Skaara had been reintegrating back into his life on Abydos; Skaara reclaimed the life stolen from him. Skaara was a young man now, taking on adult responsibilities. Any father would be very proud of him, or any friend.  
  
Cassie had also faced huge challenges and succeeded. Adapting to a new life on a different planet with strangers for family would have been overwhelming for anyone, but Cassie pulled it off. Then she had to face Nirrti's experimental rite of passage. As sick as Nirrti's experiment had made her, Cassie fought it and survived. With the guidance of Janet and Carter, Cassie was turning out to be quite the accomplished young woman. Jack was glad he was around to help out and put in a man's perspective as needed.  
  
Jack smiled, thinking of Skaara and Cassie. Not for the first time, he realized how much richer his life was for knowing them, for being a part of their lives. Jack hoped they just might say the same about him.  
  
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"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." Helen Keller (1880-1968)  
  
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